A week after he was widely condemned for blaming “many sides” for a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville that took the life of a counterprotester, the president went beyond a scripted plea for unity and love on Tuesday night by quickly devolving into a series of animated attacks on the media, former President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. John McCain.

Back in his natural element, revving up a stadium of supporters, Trump dispensed with any veneer of contrition and vigorously defended his response to Charlottesville just one day after a scripted, sober address about an increased American military presence in Afghanistan.

Trump seemed to be reveling in the crowd’s love from the moment he entered, clapping his hands as he made his way slowly to the podium, and before long he was enticing the crowd to rain boos on reporters.

“Wow, what a crowd, what a crowd,” were Trump’s first words when he stepped to the microphone.

“There aren’t too many people outside protesting, that I can tell you,” Trump quickly added, before going on to marvel at the size of the crowd, and noting that some people were still in line waiting to get in.

Trump then issued — quickly — his scripted call for unity.

“We all share the same home, the same dreams and the same hopes for a better future,” he said. “A wound inflicted on one member of our community is a wound inflicted upon us all. When one part of America hurts, we all hurt. And one American suffers and injustice, all of America suffers together. We’re all together.”

But the president quickly became animated, moved off script and began a broadside against the “very dishonest media,” as the crowd booed loudly. Apparently lifted by the energy of the crowd, Trump appeared to disregard his prepared remarks for large portions of the address.

“I have a home in Charlottesville,” Trump quipped, before attacking the press and re-reading his initial statements from after Charlottesville, claiming repeatedly that he was misrepresented by the press. He did not repeat his call for blame on “many sides.”

Trump derided The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN — the crowd chanted “CNN sucks!” — and “little George Stephanopoulos” of ABC. The crowd roared along with each attack, as Trump was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, one of whom he berated for not having a “powerful voice.”

It is the fault of the media, Trump declared, for “fomenting divisions” in the United States.

“They are trying to take away our history and our heritage, you see that,” Trump said, an apparent reference to removing monuments to Confederate generals.

“These are really, really dishonest people and they’re bad people and I really think they don’t like our country,” Trump said of the press. “The only people giving a platform to these hate groups is the media itself and the fake news.”

“These are sick people,” he continued. “You know the thing I don’t understand? You would think they’d want to make our country great again and I honestly believe they don’t.”

Trump repeatedly said, falsely, that television channels were switching away from his address.

Trump did praise Fox News, and specifically conservative host Sean Hannity and the morning show “Fox and Friends,” which he said treated him fairly.

After the extended diatribe against the press, the president switched gears.

He asked the crowd how it felt about Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the anti-immigration crusader who lost re-election in November and was recently convicted of criminal contempt for disobeying a court order about mistreating Latinos. Trump previously announced that he was considering a pardon for Arpaio, but the White House announced earlier Tuesday it would not take place at the Phoenix rally.

“I think he’s going to be just fine, okay?” Trump said of Arpaio. “I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy.”

The visit came a day after Trump announced deepening U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, and as he seeks a reset from the disastrous week that followed his “many sides” remarks.

While Monday night’s address offered a clear opportunity to appear presidential, Tuesday night’s rally gave Trump the chance to veer off script, and he embraced the opportunity.

He’d spent much of the day in transit, traveling first to Yuma, Arizona, where he visited a Marine air station and met with border patrol officers. He made the trip to Phoenix despite a plea from the city’s Democratic to postpone it out of concerns over violence stemming from the Charlottesville fallout.

Large protests were planned near the Phoenix Convention Center, where Trump appeared.

Arizona is not exactly friendly territory for Trump to begin with. He carried the state in November by less than four points, a slim margin in a state that hasn’t gone Democratic in a presidential race since 1996. Neither of the state’s Republican senators, Jeff Flake and John McCain, supported him on election day. Flake never endorsed Trump, and McCain withdrew his support after a tape surfaced in October in which Trump bragged about groping women.

The two senators have not warmed to Trump since he took office. McCain cast the deciding vote to sink the GOP’s latest Obamacare repeal push, even after a personal plea from Trump. And Flake has repeatedly criticized Trump, most recently in his new book “Conscience of a Conservative.” He slammed his fellow Republicans for their “unnerving silence in the face of an erratic executive branch.”

Trump hit back recently, praising one of Flake’s primary challengers in a tweet and calling Flake “WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate.”

“He’s toxic!” Trump added.

The state’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, did not attend the Phoenix rally.

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Vishnou

The man is too blind and self-inflated to acknowledge his own toxicity. His natural unpredictability puts the world’s fragile balance at stake. He seems to be unable and unwilling to question himself. He obviously enjoys meetings on condition they gather his followers: needs blessing from the base. Anyone who contradicts him is “fake”. Pathetic.

Posted on 8/23/17 | 12:17 PM CEST

Vishnou

“Wounded”… Really? Poor Chap. Feeling he is not understood… Feel so sorry for him 🙂

Posted on 8/23/17 | 12:55 PM CEST

onlyme

@vishnou,
Like him or not this man has achieved far more in life so far than you have ever done.
You lack the abilities and drive to be able to get where he is, if you are so righteous and capable yourself, why not run for the top position in your country and debate with Trump on an equal level….oh because your mummy won’t let you out the bedroom.
I am doing this to wind you up…and it will work :):):)

Posted on 8/23/17 | 2:10 PM CEST

Clint

Trump didn’t say “fomenting decisions.” He said “formenting decisions.” He used a word he doesn’t know.